365 days of food

I recently bought myself a nice belgian waffle iron, and so it doesn’t take much convincing for me to declare a waffle night. Since I hadn’t made it to the store in a while, and still had no idea what I wanted to make for the upcoming week that is what we did. Waffles are great because they use ingredients you probably always have on hand, they are quick and easy to make, and they usually please everyone in the house…. unless you live here. My kids do like waffles, so I guess sometimes I can get away with just making waffles for everyone, but this particular night they decided they wanted pancakes so I had Jeff make those while I made ours. In their defense they had just eaten frozen waffles the night before with chicken nuggets, but they definitely missed out this time.

While the waffles were not really very sweet by themselves I think they paired fantastically with the coconut syrup I had made earlier that day and some walnuts. As I mentioned they weren’t super indulgent waffles, but sometimes that can be a good thing, such as when you are watching what you eat! I browsed through numerous waffle recipes before deciding on that one because it used less eggs, less sugar and just seemed more diet friendly to me. The recipe did call for low fat versions of the milk and buttermilk, but since fat free is what I have on hand that’s what I used. The one thing I was disappointed about was the subtlety of the banana flavor in these. I would consider adding more banana, or even topping them with some slices of banana at the end. I didn’t have any left over or I would have tried that. I didn’t have white wheat flour so I just used half all purpose flour and half wheat flour which worked out well.

The waffles would be good topped with whatever kind of syrup you like, or some fresh fruit, but I wanted to try something different. I did a search for syrups I could make myself (knowing I didn’t have many ingredients for this on hand) and came across a coconut syrup…. DING DING DING! I love coconut, and coconut and bananas is one of my favorite combos. The recipe had some mixed reviews with some of the people saying it was really great, and others saying it was disappointing so I decided to give it a shot but to alter it a bit right from the start. I halved the amount of cornstarch, left the shredded coconut out completely (didn’t want it to taste too sweet) and added some coconut and vanilla extract. The results were amazing. It’s not super thick, sweet but not sickeningly so, and the coconut taste really shines through. Adding the vanilla gives a flavor that reminds me so much of the rum we brought back with us from our honeymoon in Tahiti. Definitely gives that tropical flavor I was hoping for! I am just going to list out the ingredients based on my changes. Make sure you do prepare the syrup ahead of time because it will need time to cool and set up all the way.

Coconut Syrup

Makes : about a cup and a half

Ingredients :

1 1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 T. cornstarch

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. coconut extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions :

In a small saucepan whisk together the coconut milk and cornstarch until cornstarch is dissolved. Pour in the corn syrup, sugar and both extracts. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously, As soon as the mixtures comes to a rolling boil remove from heat. Allow to cool completely before serving. Keep in the fridge.